Cole, a Bay Area guitar guru, now is developing Reinhardt's Belgian-French style into his own hybrid: Eurocana.

"I did Google it," said Cole, who devised the label for his version of American pop music and the newly formed quartet he leads. "It has some other uses. It really kinda says what we do. The 'Great American Song Book.' It's America's greatest gift to the world musically."

Cole, a singer, songwriter and guitarist, and Eurocana unwrap his Reinhardt-accented adaptation of that global "gift" Saturday at the Sutter Creek Theatre. They'll definitely use more than three punk-pop chords.

Cole, who also has recorded with Stockton's Chris Isaak, is joined by Mathias Minquet Villarino, "just a phenomenal" guitarist from Paris with Argentinian roots; Echae Kang, a gypsy-jazz violinist from South Korea; and Walnut Creek singer Jenefer Taylor.

Rather than be redundant, Cole doesn't just interpret pop songs from the "Great American Songbook." Guys like Rod Stewart and Paul McCartney, among others, have done that.

Cole writes his own Tin Pan Alley-style tunes - inspired mostly by Johnny Mercer (1909-76), an American singer, songwriter and composer - and arranges them with the gypsy-jazz flair of Reinhardt (1910-53), a revered jazz-guitar pioneer, and French violinist Stephane Grappelli (1908-97).

George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin made major impressions on him, too. So did the Benny Goodman Quartet.

"I'm thrilled to be doing this," Cole, 58, said during a conversation from Kensington, where he lives with wife Sheila, who works for his booking agent, and son Val, 6. "This music will be remembered in a couple of hundred years as classical. It will always survive. I just didn't wanna be another guy doing all those songs again."

Eurocana evolved from the Hot Club of Berkeley and Viva Le Jazz, two of seven bands with which Cole has played during a 42-year career.

Though Cole has mastered and taught a variety of guitar styles - from the formative Young Country to Beatnik Beatch and Big Blue Hearts, a San Francisco rockabilly band - his affection for classic American pop is more of an inherited trait.

Born in San Francisco, Cole grew up in Richmond with his parents - George, who worked at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, and Mary, a real-estate agent - "encouraging my love for music."

At 7, he was absorbing his parents' favorites - Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby - on his grandmother's "old record player."

Dad played ukulele and Cole joined on accordion at age 8. At 10, Cole switched to guitar. Not a Fender electric - like most kids in the rock 'n' roll era - but a Spanish flamenco acoustic.

"I'd be standing in front of the mirror," Cole said, "and just looking at my reflection, thinking, 'I can do this. I can be a rock 'n' roller.' But I must have been too clean cut for that kind of fantasy."

After graduating from Kennedy High School, he attended Diablo Valley College. At 20, Cole and Pinole-based Young Country first performed on Treasure Island and played regularly in Reno and Lake Tahoe.

After Big Blue Hearts (1997-2000), he learned an important lesson while touring with rocker Joe Walsh: "He taught me to play slide guitar."

He's also performed with Robert Cray, Ringo Starr and Boz Scaggs. When not gigging or tutoring, Cole works as a Bay Area studio musician.

"I tell a lot of young session players to show up on time, work hard, do a good job and impress the engineer," Cole said with a laugh. "Whether it's a jingle or a commercial. Bring your 'A' game."

Cole started helping Armstrong, now 40, lift his level when the Green Day frontman was 5. They connected partly because their fathers - Cole is an only child - had died from cancer.

"It was so sad," said Cole, who taught Armstrong - who recorded an album of Broadway show tunes at 5 - for 10 years. "He was a little boy (7) and found the funeral very confusing. Some people get religion. He got music.

"He can play more guitar styles than people have ideas. He has a good sense of time and always is in tune. He's no musical snob. He keeps it real simple and I can hear things that go back to our lessons. I never take credit for his success, but I'm super proud of that band."

He also gave Mike Dirnt (Michael Pritchard), Armstrong's buddy and Green Day's bassist, some solid advice: "He's reminded me I was the one who told him to switch to bass. I'm like a proud parent. It's the greatest thing ever."

Cole's newest project - Eurocana debuted March 21 at Yoshi's in Oakland - is adding a "Django-centric" recording. He's working at Berkeley's Fantasy Studios with John Cuniberti, the sound engineer on Joe Satriani's albums.

"It's more like Django Reinhardt playing at a club in Paris in the 1930s," Cole said. "I was always playing his music. The first time it really struck me was on 'Blue Drag' (from 1935). It just made a big impression. Wow, that's really fun."